1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for making a liquid discharge head for use in head cartridges and liquid discharging devices that produce droplets by an inkjet (liquid jet) technique.
The present invention also relates to a method for making a liquid discharge head for use in devices, such as printers, copy machines, fax machines with communication systems, and word processors with printer units, that can record objects onto recording media composed of paper, threads, fibers, textile, leather, metal, plastic, glass, wood, ceramic, or the like. Here, the term “object” includes images that have meaning, such as alphabetic characters and drawings, and images that do not have any meaning, such as patterns.
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical liquid discharge head of a liquid jet recording device capable of discharging droplets on demand includes a nozzle plate having a plurality of nozzle openings, a diaphragm opposing the nozzle plate and having portions that undergo elastic deformation when piezoelectric elements (piezoelectric vibrators) are driven, and pressure chambers formed between the nozzle plate and the diaphragm. In operation, ink flows into the chambers by the contraction and expansion of the piezoelectric elements, and is subsequently discharged in the form of droplets from the nozzle openings by expansion of the piezoelectric elements. In order to improve the bonding state between the piezoelectric elements and the diaphragm, for example, a bonding member is typically disposed between the piezoelectric element and the diaphragm to efficiently transfer the deformation of the piezoelectric element to the pressure chamber, as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,418,355. Japanese Examined Patent Application Publication No. 63-25942 teaches leg members to yield the same effect.
According to these conventional approaches, the piezoelectric elements and components of the pressure chambers are separately prepared and then bonded. As a result, the bonding process requires high-precision alignment, resulting in high manufacturing costs. If the high-precision alignment fails during the bonding process, the deformation of the piezoelectric elements may not efficiently be transmitted to the pressure chambers or the deformation may be transmitted to portions other than targeted positions. This leads to a problem of cross talk, i.e., unstable behavior of nozzle meniscuses.